hospitals in the city that had to close down entirely. and that has meant that emergency rooms and other facilities in the remaining still open hospitals in the city have been overwhelmed with a big increase in patients. the whole thing was and is a mess. well, when we reported on that dire situation at the veterans hospital a few weeks ago, the most dire part of it was the prospect that it would never reopen. they were not even making estimates of when it might open again, if ever, which is a daunting thing for the largest city in the country which has a huge concentration of veterans. but as i said, this is the good news part of it. and there is some good news here. after refusing to initially say if that hospital was ever going to come back, the v.a. has finally announced a reopen date for that hospital. they say they will reopen the outpatient clinic, at least at the manhattan v.a. hospital in march. there is no word yet on when the in-patient facility will be open. but you know what? for a place that we didn't know was ever going to